2010-01-18

the lack of a monthly bill in the mailbox doesn't mean Google's internet connection is free - it's just that it has purchased unused fiber optic cable known as "dark fiber" - and uses it to carry its traffic to other networks where it "peers" or trades traffic with other ISPs. Its costs for bandwidth are then amortized across the life of its fiber and routers.[...]Traditionally the net has been shaped like a pyramid with small ISPs at the bottom, connecting up to regional carriers, that connect to backbone and transcontinental carriers. It's much more complicated now with the top 30 websites serving up 30 percent of net traffic, either from their own sets of pipes or from data centers around the world that connect much closer to your computer - and for much cheaper - than ever before.[...]In 2007, the majority of the internet's traffic came distributed by 30,000 blocks of servers around the net (technically Autonomous System Numbers).

In 2009, 150 blocks served up half of the net's traffic.

"What we mean by the internet is changing and it's happening really quickly," Labovitz said. "I was blown away to find out that one-tenth of the internet is going [to] or coming from Google."